I have a DE-J825 that i don't use since i got my home CDP fixed (only bought it for the optical out) I won't lie to you... the sound is pretty mundane, and distorts at only average levels if the music (NOT the bass boost... don't use that) gets a bit weighty

Battery life... can't complain there, It wipes the floor compared to my D-777... and, as you said... it has CD-Text, although how useful that is is questionable... out of my some 400 CDs only ONE has got CD-Text on it lol

If you're interested reply below, or email me, and... we'll maybe see if we can do business

all of the high end sony discmans support Cd-text, but only some of the models come with the remote needed to see the text. I tried my D-ej01 remote with my friend's 815, and it displayed the CD-text.... Anyways, CD text is pretty useless- you can burn cd's with cd text but very few prerecorded cd's have it...

In fact, i think these two models are based on my D-ej01, so it would suffer from similar problems. The biggest problem with mine is the HF hissing from the headphone amp. However, they have made changes to that part of the cd player(reduced output from 15mW to 5mW/ channel, extended battery life) , so the hiss may be gone...

The japanese panasonics also have optical outs, and are generally cheaper than the expensive Sonys. However, they don't support cd-text and don't seem as solidly built as sony's

I had the D-EJ915 for a couple weeks and returned it. The sound quality was decent but half of my burned cd's (Sony's and Memorex) wouldn't want to change tracks in this Sony but worked fine in my old one. Also one day the left channel cut out for no reason and seemed to fix itself by the end of the day.
The CD text advertised on it DOES NOT WORK. It advertises cd text but actually only transfers it from cd to md through the optical out. I tried the store demo and my unit. Some were cd's that I burned with CD text and some were store bought. (I have about 5 cd's with CD text out of my collection of about 50 storebought cd's. I think the D-EJ01 is the only one that actually displays CD text.
btw, I know the cd text on all these cd's actually worked, cause my Yamaha 5 disc changer and Sony car cd player both display the text on these cd's.

if you're gonna use a DAC, then Sony's would probably be better. Probably the only serious problem with the good sonys (and this is a serious problem) is the hiss from the hp amp. SInce you'll be bypassing the hp amp with a DAC, then Sony's are pretty good...

panasonic generally has a little worse build quality, and the north american ones don't have LCD remote (and even when they have LCD remotes, they suck)

just wondering, which external DAC are you using? is this a portable dac?

I have a Musical Fidelity X-ACT, it;a a 18bit, 8X over sampling DAC, it;s not the best but's it pretty good. Very detail and neutral and looks great with my X-CANv2 and X-PSU. But it's in it's box at the moment as I don't need to use it yet.

The Sony D-EJ725 sounds like it might fit most of your needs. I'm pretty sure it was the lowest model with optical out. It has 86 hour battery life, it's really small, has decent build quality and good shock protection. Eagle Driver wrote a good review on it. The only thing is it doesn't have an LCD remote, just one with most of the functions on it like volume control, play/pause, track forward and back. It looks kind of cool too. You might want to consider it. I'd get an extended warranty on any portable if you want to keep it a few years. If you get a 4 year warranty you're basically paying about $20 for a free replacement cd player within the next few years.
I got a Kenwood portable cd with a 4 year extended warranty about 4 years ago and within 2 years I went through 4 Kenwoods and then replaced the last one with the Sony that I have right now that's 2 years old. Warranty's are good if you want to save money.

I have the Sony D-EJ915 and I like it a lot. I have no problems playing all kinds of burnt CDs. I like the sound that I get with the line out to a apheared/cmoy amp and heard through a pair of SR60s. The remote has all the functions and is very handy if the transport is in a carrying bag. As far as the optical out, I think it sounds as good as any portable rig can do, CD to MD recording is a snap. Plus it looks soooo cool.

I really liked everything about the D-EJ915 except the problems I had with it. I was hoping it would be kind of like the D-777, I knew the sound quality wouldn't be as good but since it was the same type of design I hoped it would be the same build quality/reliability. It obviously wasn't going to last me a long time so I couldn't trust it.
The Panasonic doesn't feel very durable but it's functions haven't screwed up once.
My older Sony is a lot better than either one for durability. It's been dropped and abused way too much and still held up over 2 years. It sounds really good with the 15mw amp, better than the Panasonic imo.